Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1887-03-17
A Womah's Experience With a
Saw Mill.

TUcKERTowN, FLA, November II.
Your letter of late date requesting
me to give my experience as a lumber
manufacturer is at hand. will state
at the start that / am not in the bust
ness through choice, but having loan
ed money to parties with which to
purchase a saw mill, l was compelled
by their failure to make even the first
payment to take the machinery from
them. I then put my son-in-law, Err
nest Viewer, who promised great
things, in charge. l told him | knew
nothing of saw milling but | knew
that the saw dust was too fine and the
scratches on the boards too close to-
gether. / left him run the mill, but
in short time found he could do no
better than other men and I took him
out of there so quick it made his hea d
swim. l moved the mill distance
of 90 miles, fording the Hillsborough
river, and placed it near my own
house, at an actual expense of 50; and
in a few days l had every thing in
good order. / have my own teams
and carts and take timber from my
own lands.
Although accustomed to manage
my own affairs, commencing by the
time / was grown, / found difficulties
enough in making lumber, and | have
often said that saw mill and satan
belong in the same family, and some
people say that since became the
owner of one they are sure of it; but
while they talk l am at work. This
is the trouble with half the country
saw mills: There is to much talking
and not enough work. Why, Mr..
Editor, the most of men talk over a
log long enough to saw it into irch
boards. Then when they get started
they discover that the fireman has not
steam enough, then they must all sit
down and talk again. By the time
steam is up and one or two boards
sawed, belt must be repaired, which
might just as we'll have been attended
to before working hours in the morn
ing or at noon. Then one man sews
the belt while all engage in talk again
When the belt is ready the sawyer
gets it into his mind that the machin-
cry needs Cling; then he Eunts up the
oil can, for he never has place for
anything, and goes around squirting
oil into every hole but the right one,
while the other hands 60 on with their
talking. The next day they are out
of logs and the mill hands do nothing
except to allow "their time to go on"
The day following some of the men
are reported sick and more time is
lost. At the end of the month there
is little lumber and no money and
they all wonder why saw milling does
not pay.
knew we'll enough that machinery
is made to run, and when running it
should be at work, and all | had to do
was to keep the saw cutting for 10
hours a day and six days in the week.
In order to do this the mill must be
kept in good order, not by repairing
broken parts but by keeping it from
getting broken. And | socn saw that
the parts of machinery out Of sight
were neglected the most. | would
suppose any man would know that it
is the inside of things that needs at
tention-the inside of the boiler, the
inside of the cylinder, the inside OF
the pump or inspirator is of far more
importance than the outside. Moth
ing makes me more angry than to see
a man rubbing up the outside of his
boiler when I know the mud is six in
ches deep inside, baking, burning
and blistering the iron; yet have seen
but few saw mills except my own
But I saw how that was managed be.
fore I took possession of it, and am
told that others are managed no bet
ter.
Many man in the saw mill bust.
ness would do well if he could get
skilled labor, but this state is cursed
with tribe of saw mill tramps who
claim to know everything and when
tried can do nothing. They are al
ways on foot and out of money, yet il
we are to believe them they have been
the superintendents of the largest mills
in America. Every one of them has
been Gov. Drew's principal sawyer